The kingdom active in the teachings "The kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing," Jesus said in Matthew 11:12. And forceful people are laying hold of it. These verbs are in the present tense—the kingdom existed in Jesus’ day. A parallel verse, Luke 16:16, also uses present-tense verbs: "everyone is forcing his way into it." We don’t need to decide who the forceful people are or why they use force—what is important here is that these verses talk about the kingdom as a present reality. Luke 16:16 replaces the first part of the verse with "the good news of the kingdom of God is being preached." This variation suggests that the kingdom’s advance in this age is, for practical purposes, roughly equivalent to its proclamation. The kingdom is—it already exists—and it is advancing by being preached. In Mark 10:15, Jesus indicates that the kingdom is something we must receive in some way, apparently in this life. How is the kingdom present? The details are not yet clear, but the verses we have looked at say it is present.
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